miscellaneous

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Contest Winner!

Byuclafaculty

We have a winner of today’s contest.  The winner noted that Mike Curb, shown here, was Lieutenant Governor during Jerry Brown’s first two terms in office in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  One of the oddities of California political institutions is that the governor and lieutenant governor don’t run as a slate.  So it is possible that the two come from different parties.  Mike Curb was a Republican.  Another oddity is that whenever the governor is not in the state, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor with all the powers of the governor.  (Communications were not easy when California…

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Contest

Byuclafaculty

Awhile back, we had a contest on this blog involving identification of someone in a photo.  Let’s try another contest.  At one time, Jerry Brown had to curb his enthusiasm for the man shown in the picture here.  Who is that man and what problem did Jerry Brown have with him?  The first person to answer correctly will win our undying admiration.   Send answers to daniel.j.b.mitchell@anderson.ucla.edu. Here is a hint that may help or confuse.  There is another hint in the text above:[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuCrkFeHbQc?feature=player_detailpage]

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Mini-Controversy Over the UC Seal

Byuclafaculty

An alternative seal? There seems to be a controversy simmering in the Daily Bruin about the UC seal.  No, it’s not quite as hot a controversy as the one that arose over the attempt to create a modern replacement for the seal last year. Blog readers may recall that the proposal back then, when inverted, looked like the hindquarters of an elephant and was eventually dropped. A graduating student complained that the seal, with “let there be light” from Genesis, was insufficiently secular.  He also objected to the star and the book on similar, too-religious grounds. See http://dailybruin.com/2013/06/24/seal-does-not-reflect-academia-the-student-body/ To the defense…

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That Which Cannot Go on Forever…

Byuclafaculty

Herb Stein Herb Stein, President Nixon’s chief economist, once said, “That which cannot go on forever must come to an end.”  There is a school of thought – to which our governor arguably belongs – that says that because tuition at colleges and universities has been rising faster than inflation, there is a bubble that will inevitably burst, maybe around now.  Bette Billet, president of the UCLA Faculty Women’s Club for 2013-14, passed me an article that argues that both higher ed and medicine are in the same boat. So, one might assume, a university with a med school is…

Taking it back

Byuclafaculty

Yours truly heard a segment yesterday on “All Things Considered” about a blog called “Retraction Watch” [http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/] which compiles a listing a retractions that appear in professional journals due to plagiarism, falsified data, and other misdeeds.  Most of the listings are of medical and scientific journals due to the background of the blog authors.  Unfortunately, the segment about Retraction Watch does not appear on the available downloads from All Things Considered although NPR [http://www.npr.org/] has had earlier programs which mentioned the blog. Perhaps the existence of Retraction Watch is well known to those in medical and scientific academia but yours…

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Parking at Royce Hall?

Byuclafaculty

Not surprisingly for July 4th, the webcam aimed at Royce Hall this morning did not show much (any) activity.  See the image above from the webcam.  [You can visit the Royce webcam at http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/bruincam/default.htm.]  Certainly, there were no parked cars there.  When the Westwood campus was under construction, however, it was a different matter as you can see below:

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Lest You Thought It Couldn’t Happen at UCLA…

Byuclafaculty

Unfortunately, problems of the type that happened at Penn State U apparently can happen at UCLA.  From the LA Times:A longtime UCLA athletics official resigned amid allegations that he “engaged in inappropriate conduct,” the university said in a statement released Tuesday to The Times. UCLA Associate Athletic Director Michael Sondheimer resigned June 27 after being placed on administrative leave June 3, the statement said. CBS 2 reported that Sondheimer “attempted to engage children in sexual chats” online.  Sondheimer graduated from UCLA in 1977 and spent at least 36 years as a UCLA athletic administrator, according to a biography posted on the UCLA Athletics website. For decades…

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Changing Demographics

Byuclafaculty

The Sacramento Bee today carries this demographic chart showing the Latino and white/non-Latino populations are roughly equal in California at present and the relative growth in the Latino population is projected to continue.  Due to citizenship and voting propensities, the white/non-Latino group still predominates in elections.  However, the times, they are a’changing – as the song goes – with implications for UC and higher ed in California more generally. The article that accompanies the chart can be found at:http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/01/5536254/latinos-poised-to-catch-up-with.html In a related article on the impact of Prop 209, the LA Times notes: …Latinos’ presence, after a temporary dip, has…

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UCLA History: Knudsen in the News Today

Byuclafaculty

Vern O. Knudsen Today’s LA Times has an article about the shuttering of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.  Included in that article is this brief note (below) about Vern Knudson who was chancellor of UCLA in 1959-60 and after whom a building on campus is named: …The main hall also featured metal acoustical panels and wall sconces, attributed to Vern O. Knudsen, an authority on architectural acoustics who also served, briefly, as chancellor of UCLA… Full article at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-santa-monica-civic-20130630,0,7440128.story Note: As I recall, the Auditorium’s problems stem from one of the byproducts of the state budget crisis of recent years:…